Monday, January 4, 2010

Happy New Year everyone! Hope everyone had a good holiday and is getting back into the swing of things as painlessly as possible. For my first post of 2010, I'm going to be apologizing for some fail healer behavior. Way to start the year, eh?

Now I've been doing my daily random heroic like a good little tree. Some days I go in a total pug, while others I go in a full or nearly full guild run. One day last week I was in a complete pug and we got heroic AK. The tank was a geared pally tank, and the dps was fine as well in terms of the numbers they were putting out.

Our first pull of trash goes fine, nothing out of the ordinary. I then realize that on the second pull, the lock was pulling a bit of aggro. It wasn't anything hard to heal though, so I just kept the lock up. Afterwards, I said something in party chat about "Lock tanks FTW", to which the lock responded with emotes of hugging me and loving me. So I thought that hmmm, perhaps the lock got aggro accidently or something.

Next wave of trash, I see not only the lock continuing to grab aggro, but now the hunter as well. I think it was around then that the pally started pulling multiple groups as well. Being that it was kind of early in the morning and that I was only half way through my first cup of coffee, I think it took me until after the first boss to realize what was going on.

The group had realized that I was a well geared and experienced healer, definitely geared beyond what heroic AK needed, and decided that they could go all out. I'm sure a lot of other healers have experienced this in pugs recently, where being a good healer can invite bad behavior. But here's where I misbehaved. It really was not that hard for me at all to keep the group healed up so I just continued doing so. It actually made it somewhat less of a snoozefest run for me.

I know, I know. It's not the point that it wasn't difficult for me. It was still misbehavior. But sometimes you just get tired, you know? Sometimes its just easier to heal through it then to speak up. Especially when its morning and you're still drinking your coffee. (I know, I know... not a legitimate excuse). Sometimes you actually want more than a snoozefest on these heroic runs.

At the end of the run, the lock is telling me how much she loves me, saying she wants to bring me back to her server... the hunter is following suit... and the pally is also giving me props on my healing. There was all sorts of <3 being directed to the tree. But I just felt crummy.

I felt crummy because I took the easier road out, which was to just heal through it, thereby excusing their misbehavior. I felt bad because the misbehavior would definitely not have been ok in a heroic FOS or POS run... or in any run with a newer or less geared healer.

So yeah, I failed for excusing their misbehavior. I should probably get my healing card suspended. Or at least do healing community service. Some humiliating manual labor maybe? Going around and cleaning tanky shields or something? (shudder... the horror)

Never be afraid to speak up. "Can you control your aggro? You're only hurting the group". They're losing dps, the tank is losing dps, and you're having to heal when you could be spamming moonfire.

And the world does not need any more burnt-out healers.

@River: It's not her job, but it is the better thing to do. Down the line there will be another healer and she may be less interested in carrying people who are intentionally playing poorly. Or it may not be entirely intentional and now they're learning bad habits.

You see, I felt bad because I pride myself on being a healer who as Tam puts it "doesn't take any shit" and is usually not shy from speaking my mind. I was just tired. Its hard to be snarky all the time.

And yes, I know its not my job to teach other people how to play. But us healers... as the smartest ones in WOW (heh its true you know!), I like to think we can impart wisdom on our fellow players. ;)

"But if they tailor their behavior based on the healer's abilities... is that ok?"

In my opinion, as long as the healer is ok with it, I would say it's fine. If the healer is not ok with it, then they should not do it. It's really about 5 people having fun. If all 5 are having fun, then all is good. If someone is not having fun, then something needs to change.

I really don't speculate about what will happen the next time they group with people because that is...well, speculation. Without getting to know each person, you really have no idea. So, I just err on the side of "everyone having fun".

For what it's worth, I don't think you were a bad tree. I think that kind of thing really does depend on the group - it sounds like they were a friendly, shiny bunch who weren't going to spill boiling oil on the next under-geared healer they got, while shouting: "Well, the last tree we had could cope so you must suck." I try to be quite assertive in PUGs but sometimes, if the group is fun and knows what they're doing and checks with me first, I'm happy to do crazy 'let's pull the whole instance' shit. It keeps thinking interesting and as long as people communicate and consent and nobody is left behind or made to feel uncomfortable - what's the harm?

From your description it doesn't like they were bad players, so it's not like you were encouraging bad behaviour - you were just all letting your hair down a bit.

I think that sort of thing only becomes a problem if a) the healer is stressed and not in the mood b) it becomes an EXPECTATION c) the group isn't actually capable of it.

K, honestly I don't view it as the easier road. Before I joined The Left Claw, I spent a LOT of time unguilded and in pugs. I had good ones and I had bad ones. The bad ones sound like the story you just related, and those taught me about hair-trigger healing. I wouldn't have been able to learn how to heal under horrible circumstances without those runs, and am actually grateful for them. Sort of a "fire tempers the blade" kind of analogy.

What gets me is the e-peen waving and absolute assholery I am starting to see in some of these pugs... but that is another story for another time.

No worries though... you're still the mighty Keredria as far as I am concerned. =)